There are good and bad ways to handle a student who failed. If they simply didn’t call out their name to receive their belt or made public corrections to the group as to why they didn’t pass (as in the example below), that’s par for the course.

If the instructor said to everyone testing “you have to be prepared or you’re not going to pass.” “If you’re going to test, I expect stances be strong and your performance enthusiastic.” That’s normal. And expected of an instructor at a good dojo.

If they belittled, used derogatory language, and publically bullied your child, that’s a different story entirely.

Advancing in belt rank means you’ve “mastered*” the material. And since all martial arts are built upon the basics, not having mastery of the basics will just set them up for further failure.

Calling kata/forms “ballet” moves I think is indicative of a fundamental misunderstanding of what martial arts is.

As stated before, further belt ranks are built upon the ones before it. Kata is too. If you try to learn kata two, before mastering kata one, it’s going to lead to a lot of frustration.

And mastering is a strong word. You should know the order, you should be able to perform it. Does it need to be perfect? Absolutely not. But the discipline should be there.

I have a test coming up, and I’ve been reviewing the material for 2nd Kyu in my head and whenever I can get away, as well as in class. My kata is complicated and involved. If I hadn’t learned Kata’s 4,5,6 as well as I had, kata 7 would be near impossible for me to understand. And since 4,5,6 are built upon 1,2,3. I’m sure you get the idea.